516 



MISSOURI. 



Kequiring railroads to furnish sufficient stock-cars, 

 and to make no discriminations in rates or in facilities 

 furnished to shippers. 



Providing for the incorporation of mutual saving 

 fund, loan, and building associations. 



Providing for the appointment of a county coun- 

 selor in counties containing 75,000 inhabitants or 

 more, and prescribing their qualifications and duties. 



Authorizing county courts to pay for bridges, court- 

 houses, jails, and other public buildings contracted for 

 them. 



To authorize the funding of county indebtedness. 



Punishing attempts to blackmail. 



To prevent the use of any substitute for hops, or the 

 pure extract of hops, in the manufacture of ale or beer. 



To prevent gambling under the guise of trading in 

 stocks, bonds, petroleum, cotton, gram, provisions, 

 or other commodities, and defining " bucket-shops.'_' 



Authorizing the board of regents of Lincoln Insti- 

 tute to sell the institute farms, and to purchase adjoin- 

 ing land. 



Providing a penalty for issuing a certificate to an 

 applicant for teaching in the public schools without 

 first examining such applicant. 



Granting to the public schools, in townships where 

 saloons may be situated, one third of the county reve- 

 nue derived from saloon licenses. 



To facilitate the collection of statistical data of the 

 productive industries of the State. 



To regulate appeals to the circuit court from town- 

 ship boards. 



Fixing the weight of flour in barrels and sacks. 



As the Legislature adjourned without solv- 

 ing the railroad problem, and also without 

 making appropriations to meet deficiencies for 

 the past two years, the Governor issued a call 

 for an extra session to convene on May 11. 

 The deficiency bill passed at this session ap- 

 propriates about $150,000, of which $121,000 

 is required to pay the costs in criminal cases 

 for 1885 and 1886. Several measures relating 

 to railroads were adopted, the most important 

 of which declares all railway lines in the State 

 public highways, prohibits the giving of special 

 rates, rebates, and drawbacks, or the charging 

 of higher proportionate rates for small than 

 for large quantities transported, prohibits dis- 

 crimination in facilities granted for transporta- 

 tion or in rates for shorter and longer hauls, 

 makes pooling unlawful, requires schedules of 

 rates and fares to be printed and posted, pro- 

 hibits willful interruption of continuous car- 

 riage, and empowers the railroad commission- 

 ers to enforce the various provisions of the act. 

 Another law regulates the rights of shippers to 

 build branch tracks from their manufactories 

 or mines to any railroad, and to purchase cars 

 for their own use, while a third relates to the 

 use and protection of switches. The session 

 adjourned on July 2, having passed nine acts. 



Finances. The following are the principal 

 appropriations for ordinary State expenses for 

 1887 and 1888: for interest on the bonded 

 debt, $1,060,000; for interest on the 6-per- 

 cent, consols held in trust for the school 

 fund, $349,080 ; interest on other indebtedness, 

 $76,840; for the State asylum at Fulton, $89,- 

 200; the asylum at St. Joseph, $90,200; the 

 asylum at Nevada, $50,000; the asylum at St. 

 Loui?, $70,000; the Institution for the Deaf 

 and Dumb, $94,500 ; the State School for the 



Blind, $46,000; the State University at Colum- 

 bia, $65,300; the three State normal schools, 

 $70,000; the Lincoln Institute, $18,000; the 

 State Penitentiary, $140,000. One third of 

 the State revenue is set apart for the support 

 of the public schools. 



Penitentiary. The number of convicts in the 

 State Penitentiary at the beginning of the year 

 was 1,635, an increase of 97 in the past two 

 years. The institution is greatly overcrowded, 

 and the arrangements for classifying and sepa- 

 rating the convicts are insufficient. The re- 

 ceipts from convict labor during the two years 

 1884-'86 were less than the ordinary expendi- 

 tures by about $100,000. The sum of $110,000 

 has recently been expended for improvements. 



Railroads. The total railroad construction 

 for the year was 554 miles on 16 different lines. 



The Bald-Knobbers. Efforts were made during 

 the year to destroy the Bald-Knobber organiza- 

 tion of Christian County and vicinity, and to 

 bring the principal offenders to justice. The 

 peculiar state of society that permits these 

 night-riding bands of regulators to dispense 

 their own rude law of vengeance, and to burn, 

 whip, and kill in defiance of all authority, has 

 long existed in the southwestern counties of 

 the State, and has had its effect in preventing 

 the development of that region. Ozark, 

 Taney, Douglas, and Christian counties have 

 especially suffered from these bands whose 

 power has been so great as to draw into their 

 number some of the most influential citizens, 

 even judges and ministers of the Gospel being 

 claimed as adherents. Early in March a mur- 

 der of unusual atrocity by the Knobbers of 

 Christian County led to the arrest of several 

 suspected members of that organization, from 

 whom a confession was obtained concerning 

 the methods and acts of their confederates. 

 Warrants were issued, and about seventy-five 

 persons were brought to Ozark, the county- 

 seat of Christian County, for trial. Indict- 

 ments were here found against nearly all, the 

 majority being charged with attending unlaw- 

 ful assemblies. Fines varying from $10 to 

 $100 were imposed upon such as confessed 

 their guilt in this regard, while those who were 

 held for murder submitted to trial and were 

 punished with more mercy than they had 

 themselves shown toward their victims. This 

 is said to have crushed out the Christian County 

 organization. 



Local Option. Elections under the new local- 

 option law were held during the autumn in 

 more than half of the 115 counties of the 

 State, and in 16 cities. Fifty of these elec- 

 tions resulted in favor of prohibition, and 28 

 against it. The total vote polled was 153,180, 

 or about three fourths of the full vote, of 

 which the prohibitionists cast 78,317, a ma- 

 jority of 5,510 against the saloons. The con- 

 stitutionality of the act was called in question 

 before the State Supreme Court in the case of 

 the State vs. Pond et al., and a decision ren- 

 dered in December in favor of its validity. 



